Are sex offenders living near your child's school?

Brutal attack on 8-year-old girl raises questions as new school year approaches

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The search continues in Arlington for the person responsible for beating and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in the woods behind an apartment complex.

Those woods are less than a mile from Justina Road Elementary School, where children will return for the start of a new school year in just over a week.

News4Jax has been looking into the number of sexual offenders and sexual predators living near schools in Duval County.

Often when parents look up sexual offenders in their area, they look them up in relation to their home address. But many students walk or ride bikes to school, traveling right past the homes of offenders.

RELATED: How many sex offenders live near your school?

News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said that's just one of the reasons it's important for children not to go to school alone.

"Very rarely, if ever, will someone attack someone when they are with other kids," Smith said. "It usually happens when a child is alone. They should always be with someone."

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's database, within 1 mile of Brentwood Elementary School, on the Northside, live 79 registered offenders or predators. A few miles away, there are 144 offenders or predators living within 1 mile of Richard L. Brown Elementary.

Smith said that it's important to talk to children and make sure they know to always be aware of their surroundings. He said parents should also make sure that their children don't try to take shortcuts to school.

"Kids like to take the shortcut. They are walking, sometimes through a wooded area in the back part of an apartment complex for a much quicker route to school," Smith said. "That is very dangerous."

Smith also encouraged parents to have a code word between them and their children. If someone the child doesn't know is picking them up, the code word will let the child know it's OK.

"If the person hesitates or tries to talk around it or say something else, immediately get away," Smith said. "If they don't give that code word that is between the parent and the child, don't let them pick you up." 

Each of the offenders News4Jax found living within a mile of a school was in compliance with the law that offenders must live at least 1,000 feet from a school.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the 8-year-old girl's family with her medical bills. That account had raised over $9,000 in two days.

The girl's condition is slowly improving, according to a family friend, who said the girl has been coloring and drawing in her hospital room.

The friend said the girl is having trouble eating because of the swelling in her throat.